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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Van Wely scalp

No....it wasn't me, it was Jake Kleiman rated USCF 2453 in the North American Open. I was browsing through the game and naturally I was curious to see how Van Wely lost with white as it's normal for him to be at or very near the top in these American Opens.

After maneuvering around for 20+ moves trying to find ways to go forward, make his king safe and make good on his extra pawn....he got hit with an unexpected tactic in his position.

52...Rxc5!

A bolt out of he blue...last move 52.Qd5 was meant to prevent that! Now it all falls apart for Van Wely. He can't take the rook lets look at that:

53.Qxc5 Qd1+ now 54.Kc3 meets 54...Qd3# and I'll leave it as an exercise to find the mate if 54.Ka2.

After 53.Qd7 Bd3 Van Wely could have resigned but managed to fight for another 30 moves before being forced to throw in the towel.